Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Women Will Win

My name is Michael Stevens, and I'm a Mormon. I'm also a feminist. Now before you decide not to listen to me, just hear me out. Women have been mistreated for centuries, and even today women still are being mistreated and misrepresented. There is a way we can change this, but I need your help to do it.

In 2011 the U.S. Government performed a study, revealing that one in five women have been sexually assaulted at some point in their lives.

The novel Purple Hibiscus was published in 2003, telling the story of two teenage siblings in postcolonial Nigeria living under the rule of an abusive father, ruling their lives with an iron fist.

After much argument, the two children are allowed to go stay with their single-mother Aunt who allows them watch TV, listen to non-religious music - in short, experience a new world. These children return home, wanting more freedom and autonomy than ever before.

These feelings of suppression and limited potential were expressed by Betty Friedan's 1963 Feminine Mystique. Women across America were stuck at home living their robotic domestic lives, all feeling the same problem that had no name.

Those of you who are women likely have wondered at one time or another, "how do I balance my family life with my professional life? Is it possible?"

These questions are particularly important to me because my wife is completing her masters degree in speech pathology. We are planning to work to find this balance in our own lives because I know my wife would go insane if she didn't have professional work in the career she is passionate about.

The movies, television and music we consume often gravitate around violence, vice and viciousness. This leads to men who sexually assault women and women who believe they can't become more than what they are. Can the media we consume be used for good? I believe it can.

Colin Stokes gave a TED talk in November 2012 entitled "How movies teach manhood" wherein he highlights two movies, The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars. In the former, Dorothy saves the world through making friends and having influence for good. In the latter, Princess Leia waits around to be saved, in the end awarding the men with medals and a wink. I side with Stokes when he poses the probing question: "Why is there so much Force ... in the movies we have for our kids, and so little yellow brick road?"

Comic book artist Alison Bechdel created a test we can use on movies to assess if women are playing important roles we want our kids to see. First, is there more than one women with lines? Second, do the women speak to each other? And third, do they speak about something other than the guy they both love? If you can answer yes to these questions, then it passes the test. Chances are much of what we watch today fails this test. It's interesting to note that in 2011, only 11 of the top 100 movies had a female protagonist. Something needs to change.

Women are all these words: leaders, smart, influential, bosses. The media we consume is currently pushing us to forget this. We are the future of the movies and television future generations will consume. If we decide to help men and women see the powerful potential women have, then the number of women mistreated and misrepresented will surely go down. Women will be treated as they deserve to be. Women will win.

9 comments:

I loved this post. I especially enjoyed the beginning and the end. I liked your call to action in the introduction to your post. I thought it was very fitting. Many of your points were very good and many of your statistics shocking. This shock factor will cause your audience to want to make changes in society. Your yellow brick road quote was also very good. I enjoyed the comparison. i think that applying this to movies and our social media consumption is a very good idea. as well you could tie your beginning idea about the boys going to their aunts house to the freedom that woman received during the World Wars. during this time women received freedoms they didn't have before and they realized,like the boys did in the book, that they could have more, that they could become more.

This post is wonderful. I don't disagree with you at all. Women deserve to feel as safe, as smart, and as equally represented as men. I feel like the root of these problems comes from history, but also lingers in the present because it has much to do with things we don't like talking about. Man's consumption of pornography and violence (media), and the lack of desire to be exceptional parents (which is very hard) are the two reasons, in my opinion, that women don't have the equality we desire for them.

This post is wonderful. I don't disagree with you at all. Women deserve to feel as safe, as smart, and as equally represented as men. I feel like the root of these problems comes from history, but also lingers in the present because it has much to do with things we don't like talking about. Man's consumption of pornography and violence (media), and the lack of desire to be exceptional parents (which is very hard) are the two reasons, in my opinion, that women don't have the equality we desire for them.

Awesome. Your images add a lot to your argument, I really like them. Also, your argument is good stuff, and I totally agree. You have a good mix of personal, passion, and facts. The stats are good, and I love the little "test". Well done!

I think this argument has a lot of room for expansion. This could be stretched and adapted to be a speech about the harm of media in general, perception vs reality, etc.

Also I think you have a lot about the media perception of women, but I think some first hand statement or statistic of how satisfied women are with their own life and possibilites could help establish just how large of a problem there is.

Coming from someone who endured constant sexual harassment at work for over a year, I think this post is very important. Gender discrimination permeates through our society beyond what is visible to us on the surface.

As a feminist myself of course I am enthused to see conversation about these concepts at BYU :) So first of all: thanks! Secondly I like the path you took in using personal narrative in a few places. I love your bold claim that women will win, maybe it should be tied to the idea that when women win, we all win? Another bit of evidence you could use to smoothly connect the ideas of women being misrepresented and bring it a little closer home to the reader is how we use feminine words as insults (such as "don't be such a girl", "pussy", and more I won't write for propriety's sake), whereas we use male phrases as positive things (such as telling people to "man up", or "grow a pair"). These may make it personal for the reader since we've ALL done it and usually don't think twice about it, and may help tie in to the overall theme of communication being central to our civilization and how we experience it.

I won't be disappointed if you don't use that idea, just trying to give you more raw brainstorm material to think about!

I totally agree with your argument that women's rights need to be addressed! (consider the fact that Utah has one of the highest wage gaps between men and women) I really enjoyed your post. My main question is what is your main argument? Are you focusing on changing how women are represented in the media or calling for increased action against sexual violence? I think that your post brings up a lot of good points and the more specific your argument or call to action is the more of an impact it will have. Great work!